TallGuyJohninBKK

True.... I didn't want the poor waitress girl to have her salary docked for a simple mistake. But at the same time, I didn't want to pay extra (for the second dish I ordered but didn't receive) for her mistake.... So, my Thai wife stepped in... told the waitress to order and bring the correct dish I was supposed to have received, and my wife paid me back the difference in the bill out of her own pocket....

I've lived full-time in the same place in BKK for my entire duration in Thailand, many years... Never filed any TM-30 or was ever told I needed to for the better part of a decade until, as you noted, someone at Immigration got on their horse on that topic some years back and began requiring them big-time for a period of time. Caught me in that sweep as well, wouldn't do a new retirement extension without one... Since then, heard nothing further about TM-30s... The whole history of the TM-30s here seems to have been mostly arbitrary and capricious.

It's a good question.... I have no idea what Bangkok Immigration's TM-30 policy is on such matters regarding short domestic travel away from one's regular home. Especially when your short trip away may involve the hotel doing an Immigration report on your visit.

The wife and I were eating at a local restaurant near Victory Monument in BKK a couple weeks back... My Thai wife ordered food from the Thai waitress, and when the order eventually arrived, they had the wrong dish from what my order was supposed to be.... I had ordered pork curry, and they produced chicken kareage. I wanted the waitress to take the wrong order away, and bring my correct dish. But the waitress pleaded with my wife that if she made a mistake and had to do a new order for the correct item, the restaurant would charge her for that dish since it was her mistake.

And recall just who was accepting payoffs/bribes on a wide scale to issue visas to them so they could stay in Thailand long-term and operate their criminal ventures here....

Extortion and kidnapping of foreigners in Thailand... Hmmm.. maybe the Chinese have actually been reading the local news lately: https://www.vice.com/en/article/m7bjka/chinese-nationals-kidnapped-thailand A 62-year-old Chinese man and his Thai interpreter were abducted only meters away from his Bangkok residence earlier this month, then held for hours while their kidnappers demanded cryptocurrency payments. ... The scandal comes amid reports of Thai immigration officers partaking in fraud and the kidnappings of at least three other Chinese nationals in the country over the past week." Sometimes it's Thai police/immigration. But sometimes, as the above report recounts, it's criminal Chinese abducting and extorting their fellow countrymen here...

Still No Determination on COVID-19 Origin Posted on March 2, 2023 | Updated on March 20, 2023 ... "[U.S.] Government agencies are still divided on the origin hypotheses, and the reporting so far indicates the new information, while persuasive to the Energy Department, wasn’t convincing to other agencies. The Journal, as well as the New York Times and Washington Post, have reported, based on unnamed sources, that none of the other intelligence community entities has changed its assessment from the 2021 IC document in light of the new analysis. Four government entities, along with the National Intelligence Council, still say the natural spillover is most likely." (more) https://www.factcheck.org/2023/03/scicheck-still-no-determination-on-covid-19-origin/

The Strongest Evidence Yet That an Animal Started the Pandemic A new analysis of genetic samples from China appears to link the pandemic’s origin to raccoon dogs. ... A new analysis of genetic sequences collected from the market shows that raccoon dogs being illegally sold at the venue could have been carrying and possibly shedding the virus at the end of 2019. It’s some of the strongest support yet, experts told me, that the pandemic began when SARS-CoV-2 hopped from animals into humans, rather than in an accident among scientists experimenting with viruses. “This really strengthens the case for a natural origin,” says Seema Lakdawala, a virologist at Emory University who wasn’t involved in the research. (more) https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:IZ8P3iTWxGQJ:https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2023/03/covid-origins-research-raccoon-dogs-wuhan-market-lab-leak/673390/

Explosion??? Chevron stops production at Thai oil field after fatal explosion Mar. 20, 2023 Chevron (NYSE:CVX) said Monday it has suspended production at the Benchamas oil field in the Gulf of Thailand following an accident last week at an oil storage vessel that caused seawater to leak into the vessel's hull, killing one crew member. Thai government agencies are on alert for a potential oil spill from the floating storage and offloading vessel. The FSO, which for more than four years has been operating at the Benchamas field, had ~400K barrels of oil on board at the time of the incident. (more) https://seekingalpha.com/news/3948788-chevron-stops-production-at-thai-oil-field-after-fatal-explosion

"Group 3 – special cases • Group 4 – cases in which the state is the victim. Five other foreigners were found to have committed Group 4 offences, which refer to “offences against the state”." I hope someone from Immigration is going to be coming forward publicly and soon explaining just what kind of conduct qualifies as group 3 and group 4 offenses.... Special cases? Offenses against the state? And 5 foreigners already having fallen afoul of the latter. ????

There was something in the news the other day about Thailand and Russia reaching agreement on a new extradition treaty. Wonder how that's going to fit into the whole "Russians flee Russia for Thailand" story? Thai cabinet approves draft extradition treaty with Russia "According to Rachada, the treaty does not require the approval of the Parliament..." Putin declares them all draft-dodging criminals, and demands their extradition from Thailand???

That certainly worked for the Chinese for a long while.... until it didn't.

Depends on what you mean by "work"... First there's so-called "source control." Even cheap and loose fitting masks have been shown to be helpful in reducing the likelihood of an infected wearer to spread the virus to others...because the mask surface covering their mouth catches their exhaling as they breath. Then there's wearer protection, the ability of the mask to prevent the wearer from breathing in virus elements in the air. That's the area where having a better mask like an N95 mask is more effective than the cheap, simple ones. There have been studies done on all this, but in short, the advice from public health officials these days is -- any properly maintained mask is better than no mask. "Wear a Mask to Protect Yourself and Others Masking is a critical public health tool and it is important to remember that any mask is better than no mask. Wear the most protective mask you can that fits well and that you will wear consistently." https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prevent-getting-sick/masks.html As for the various protection rates of masks: "A study from Tokyo tested how well different types of masks protected the wearer from actual coronavirus particles. The study showed that even a simple cotton mask offered some protection (17 percent to 27 percent) to the wearer. Medical masks performed better, including a surgical mask (47 percent to 50 percent protection), a loosefitting N95 (57 percent to 86 percent protection) and a tightly sealed N95 (79 percent to 90 percent protection)." https://www.nytimes.com/article/covid-masks-protection-stats.html

From that article: "The reported incidence of (epi-)myocarditis after vaccination is low and the risks of hospitalization and death associated with COVID-19 are stated to be greater than the recorded risk associated with COVID-19 vaccination [29]." And further from the authors: "Finally, we cannot provide a definitive functional proof or a direct causal link between vaccination and myocarditis." And, the authors also posit that possible mistakes in the administration of the vaccines (giving the shots intravenously instead of intramuscularly) in their handful of studied cases may also have been the cause. "Of note, it has been recently reported that intravenous injection of COVID-19 mRNA vaccine is able to induce an acute (epi-) myocarditis in a preclinical model [28]. Interestingly, we recorded inflammatory foci predominantly in the right heart, which may suggest a gradual blood-stream derived dilution effect and based on this finding it is at least tempting to speculate that inadvertent intravascular vaccine injection may be contributive."

A separate MoPH FB post in Thai from March 14 also seems to be referencing yet another change in the location and schedule for COVID vaccinations in Bangkok... This below is the Google Translate EN version of the original TH graphic. https://www.facebook.com/fanmoph/posts/pfbid02YNSxtD1YNNZM8Y1LSpbZr1X86Pn3W9pLqs9ZFQwUzmccdeyYjjc2qxapEenWtiYzl It seems to be saying the current MoPH COVID vax location, which I assume they mean to be the Institute of Dermatology near Victory Monument, ceased its service as of March 14. And then, they're talking about COVID vax services resuming after Song Kran starting April 27, every second and fourth Thursday of the month, from 1 to 4 pm, at the Phumjit Building, outpatient clinic, of the Phra Nang Klao government hospital in Nonthaburi province. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phra_Nang_Klao_Hospital "Its closest rapid transit station is Phra Nang Klao Bridge MRT Station on the MRT Purple Line."

I'm seeing in a TH MoPH announcement from several days ago that the 1+ million Moderna COVID vaccine doses donated by France to Thailand are in fact the newer BIVALENT version aimed at the Omicron variants of COVID -- and not the now out-of-date original version. The EN translation of the TH MoPH announcement reads: The Ministry of Public Health receives more than 1 million doses of the “Bivalent” Moderna vaccine from the French government https://pr.moph.go.th/?url=pr/detail/2/04/187805/ There isn't any English version of this MoPH announcement linked above, but Google Translate has part of it referring to the donated doses "which the Ministry of Public Health will spread throughout the country to continue to strengthen the immunity of the people." Unfortunately, there aren't any specifics in the announcement of just how and where the donated bivalent Moderna doses will be used.

The wife and I were out and around the Victory Monument area in BKK this past weekend... and I'd say 95% of the Thais we saw walking around both outside and inside in shops and stores were wearing various versions of face masks... and I was wearing my standard 3M N95 mask, as always. Totally opposite situation around my home neighborhood where there are a lot of tourists from East and West, with most farang tourists especially not wearing them. It's good to see the Thais trying to be mindful of protecting both their own health and that of those around them by masking up... unlike most of the tourist folks from the West.

The COVID vaccines reduce the likelihood of the vaccinated person becoming infected... so they prevent infection for some, but not all. The specific rate of vaccine efficiency (VE) against regular infection depends on the strain of the virus circulating, the particular vaccine(s) previously given, how many doses and how long prior, and various other factors. Lately, with the new Omicron variants' increased vaccine evasion capabilities, the prevention of infection VE numbers are relatively low, unlike at the beginning of the pandemic. But the prevention of serious illness and death VE rates have remained very high, especially for those who have received vaccine booster shots as recommended. From the UK Health agency's latest COVID vaccine monitoring report for March: "several studies have provided evidence that vaccines provide some protection against infection. Uninfected individuals cannot transmit. Therefore, the vaccines also provide some protection against transmission. There may be an additional benefit, beyond that due to prevention of infection, if some of those individuals who become infected despite vaccination are also at a reduced risk of transmitting (for example, because of reduced duration or level of viral shedding)." https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1139990/vaccine-surveillance-report-2023-week-9.pdf

A few months back, the Embassy told me, in person only in urgent/emergency circumstances.

I worked at 7/11 in the U.S. as a teenager and it helped finance my college education. The company (Southland Corp.) started out as a U.S. company in the 1940s and 1950s... the Japan part came much later in the 1970s. "By 1945 Southland owned stores scattered over north-central Texas. These stores offered convenient hours—operating from seven in the morning until 11 at night—seven days a week. When the Tracy-Locke firm was commissioned to create a new name, they chose “7-Eleven” to emphasize the company’s commitment to serving customers. At this time Southland remodeled all 7-Eleven stores, doubling the amount of floor space at each retail outlet." Southland extended its area of operations outside of Texas during the late-1950s when John Thompson, now vice-president, introduced 7-Eleven stores in Virginia, Maryland, and eastern Pennsylvania...." etc etc... https://www.encyclopedia.com/social-sciences-and-law/economics-business-and-labor/businesses-and-occupations/southland-corp

The quote from Ardern above is a cobbled together version of a much longer statement she made back in 2020 at the beginning of the pandemic... which not surprisingly has been highlighted by conservative social media. See the following: https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/jacinda-ardern-truth/ Context "Context was missing from a video of these remarks that was reshared in July 2022. One day after tweeting the video, The Daily Wire issued a second tweet to correct that the remarks were more than two years old. Further, the video that was shared on social media did not include around 27 seconds that preceded the clip, in which Ardern spoke more about not being fooled by potentially misleading information on social media in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic."

One difference for sure, other than the high price of the former Embassy route: You used to be able to get the certificate on the same day you applied at the U.S. Embassy... as opposed to waiting a week or two for Immigration to send it in the mail. Also, at least in the past, at least some officers at BKK CW and other Immigration offices used to charge a couple hundred baht unofficial fee for residency certificates and not provide any receipt for the service... so something that was supposed to be free often wasn't free... Although, it's been some years since I applied for one there, so not sure what their practice about that is lately. Also, another possible is last time I was at BKK CW last fall, the IO and supervisor told me there that henceforth they'd be requiring updated bank book photocopies (not a new bank letter) anytime anyone on a retirement extension came mid-cycle for any service from the L section. Is it the L section that also handles residency certifs?

post vaccination -- "a rate that is approximately five times lower than after SARS-CoV-2 infection." " Also worth keeping in mind... COVID is still causing 300+ deaths per day and 3,000+ new COVID hospitalizations per day in the U.S. And here in Thailand, according to the government, one COVID death per day and 17 new COVID hospitalizations per day... Any COVID vaccination related hospitalizations and deaths, if any, pale in comparison. Thailand: "Following the weekly number of COVID-19 infected people. Between 5th - 11th March 2023 Patients treating in hospital (weekly) Number 122 people: Daily average. Number 17 people/day. Deaths ( weekly ) Number of 6 people: Daily average. Number of 1 person/day. --------------------- Total of 4,385 patients treated in the hospital (since 1 January 2566) Total death toll 255 (since 1 January 2566)" United States: "New Hospital Admissions The current 7-day daily average for February 22–28, 2023, was 3,318." Deaths The current 7-day average of new deaths (327) decreased 3.3% compared with the previous 7-day average (338)." https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/covid-data/covidview/index.html People in the U.S. who have received the new bivalent vaccine have almost a 10 times lower risk of dying from COVID compared to the unvaccinated. https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#rates-by-vaccine-status Getting vaccinated is clearly your best odds for staying safe and protecting your health.

And more from the findings of the same study: "In summary, POTS-related diagnoses appear to be acquired with increased frequency after, compared to before, COVID-19 vaccination, particularly when compared to more commonly diagnosed conditions, but at a rate that is approximately five times lower than after SARS-CoV-2 infection. "

No credible scientific evidence has been produced thus far that show it DOES work for COVID prophalaxsis. You don't take or approve medications in the absence of facts that show they work. You take or approve medications once you have facts that show they DO work for the intended purpose. https://www.factcheck.org/2022/09/scicheck-clinical-trials-show-ivermectin-does-not-benefit-covid-19-patients-contrary-to-social-media-claims/